Rugby sevens: NZ women on top of world

Woodman wizardry breaks down stubborn Oz resistance during tense final in Brazil.

Speedster Portia Woodman broke a tense final deadlock and Australia's resistance as the New Zealand women won the latest sevens tournament in Brazil.

A swerve around her marker and a 70m sprint to the line nailed the title and helped confirm Woodman as player of the tournament with her record 13-try haul.

The 17-10 victory, completed with Tyla Nathan-Wong's sideline conversion, topped a difficult programme for New Zealand through the playoffs.

"Portia had a special tournament and played with special confidence after coming back at Dubai from a long-term injury. She did very well but it was only because of the good ball produced inside her," coach Sean Horan said.

"We knew before the game we would have to defend hard and while they breached us twice, overall we defended well."

Portia Woodman. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand survived a quarterfinal scare against USA for a 28-17 victory then a demanding 12-5 semifinal win against France before squaring off against Australia who had an equally awkward playoff run, beating England 29-10 then squeaking past Canada 12-7.

Australian coach Tim Walsh and his side were left to contemplate a final defeat they felt they let escape.

"We had our chances and we can only learn from these losses. Despite I think being the better team, we did not get the result we deserved," he said.

There are four more rounds in the series left with tournaments in Atlanta, Canada, London and Amsterdam.

All Blacks sevens captain DJ Forbes has been ruled out of this week's USA Sevens in Las Vegas and replaced by veteran sevens player Lote Raikabula.

Forbes injured his left foot during the team's quarter-final against Australia on Saturday and took no further part in the Wellington tournament.

The team for USA Sevens is otherwise unchanged and will be captained by Scott Curry.

Raikabula, 31, has played more 60 tournaments since making his debut in 2006.

The All Blacks sevens have been drawn against Fiji, Wales and Samoa in Pool A of the USA Sevens.

The win in Wellington sees the All Blacks sevens rise to second place in the HSBC Sevens World Series on 69 points.

South Africa finished third in Wellington and still lead on 76 points with five tournaments to play.